Health and Human Services News and Research

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It’s almost flu season. Should you still get a shot, and will insurance cover it?

For parents of school-aged children, the fall to-do list can seem ever-growing. Buy school supplies. Fill out endless school forms.

18 Aug 2025

‘Alternative facts’ aren’t a reason to skip vaccines

President Donald Trump's administrations have been notorious for an array of "alternative facts" — ranging from the relatively minor (the size of inaugural crowds) to threats to U.S. democracy, such as who really won the 2020 election.

14 Aug 2025

‘A fear pandemic’: Immigration raids push patients into telehealth

Jacob Sweidan has seen his patients through the federal immigration raids of the 1990s, a sitting governor's call to abolish birthright citizenship, and the highly publicized workplace crackdowns and family separation policies of President Donald Trump's first term.

14 Aug 2025

Quitting smoking linked to better recovery from drug and alcohol addiction

Adults who smoke cigarettes and are addicted to alcohol or other drugs were more likely to achieve sustained remission of their substance use disorder symptoms if they also quit smoking, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). `

13 Aug 2025

Michigan Public Health awarded $1.8 million to address gaps in maternal and child health workforce

The University of Michigan School of Public Health has been selected as one of 13 Centers of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education, Science, and Practice by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

12 Aug 2025

Why young Americans dread turning 26: Health insurance chaos

Amid the challenges of adulthood, one rite of passage is unique to the United States: the need to find your own health insurance by the time you turn 26.

11 Aug 2025

Inside the CDC, shooting adds to trauma as workers describe projects, careers in limbo

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers whose jobs have been reinstated after dizzying Trump administration disruptions say they remain stuck in a budgetary, political, and professional limbo.

11 Aug 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Kennedy cancels vaccine funding

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement that the federal government will cancel nearly $500 million in mRNA research funding is unnerving not only for those who develop vaccines, but also for public health experts who see the technology behind the first covid-19 shots as the nation's best hope to combat a future pandemic.

7 Aug 2025

Patient numbers at NIH hospital have plummeted under Trump, jeopardizing care

The number of people receiving treatment at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center — the renowned research hospital that cares for patients with rare or life-threatening diseases — has tumbled under the second Trump administration, according to government documents and interviews with current and former NIH employees.

7 Aug 2025

As California’s behavioral health workforce buckles, help is years away

This spring, the Good News Rescue Mission, which runs the only emergency homeless shelter in Shasta County, received a game-changing $17.8 million state grant to build a 75-bed residential treatment facility in a region where thousands struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

6 Aug 2025

New Medicaid federal work requirements mean less leeway for states

When President Donald Trump signed a law adding work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, he may have undercut lawmakers in at least 14 states who were designing their own plans, according to health industry observers.

5 Aug 2025

Deep staff cuts at a little-known federal agency pose trouble for droves of local health programs

A little-known federal agency that sends more than $12 billion annually to support community health centers, addiction treatment services, and workforce initiatives for America's neediest people has been hobbled by the Trump administration's staffing purges.

1 Aug 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Next on Kennedy’s list? Preventive care and vaccine harm

In his ongoing effort to reshape health policy, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly plans to overhaul two more government entities: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

31 Jul 2025

Chronically ill? In Kennedy’s view, it might be your own fault

On a recent weekday evening, Ashly Richards helped her 13-year-old son, Case, with homework. He did math problems and some reading, underscoring how much he's accomplished at his school for children with autism.

31 Jul 2025

Immunocompromised people are susceptible to skin cancer caused directly by beta-HPV

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have shown for the first time that a type of human papillomavirus (HPV) commonly found on the skin can directly cause a form of skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) when certain immune cells malfunction.

30 Jul 2025

Immigrant kids detained in ‘unsafe and unsanitary’ sites as Trump team seeks to end protections

A child developed a rash after he was prevented from changing his underwear for four days. A little boy, bored and overcome with despair, began hitting himself in the head.

30 Jul 2025

Centauri Therapeutics receives an additional $5.1 M from CARB-X to progress ABX-01 lead compound to first in human clinical trials

Centauri Therapeutics Limited ('Centauri'), an immunotherapy company with a unique and proprietary platform technology applicable across a wide range of therapeutic indications, announced today that CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) has provided an additional $5.1 M in funding for the development of their lead compound.

29 Jul 2025

Fearing Medicaid coverage loss, some parents rush to vaccinate their kids

For two decades, Washington, D.C., pediatrician Lanre Falusi has counseled parents about vaccine safety, side effects, and timing. But this year, she said, the conversations have changed.

28 Jul 2025

Insurers and customers brace for double whammy to Obamacare premiums

Most of the 24 million people in Affordable Care Act health plans face a potential one-two punch next year — double-digit premium increases along with a sharp drop in the federal subsidies that most consumers depend on to buy the coverage, also known as Obamacare.

18 Jul 2025

New funding empowers Be Well Texas to combat opioid crisis

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has selected Be Well Texas, an initiative of the Be Well Institute on Substance Use and Related Disorders at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), to lead a major expansion of opioid use disorder and recovery support services across Texas.

17 Jul 2025